WASHINGTON, Dec 1, 2008 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush marked World AIDS Day on Monday by highlighting his dramatic and widely praised overhaul of US efforts to battle the deadly disease, particularly in Africa.
Bush, pointing to a 28-foot red ribbon (8.5 meters) hanging from the White House's north entrance, declared it "a symbol of our resolve to confront HIV/AIDS and to affirm the matchless value of every life."
The US president also announced that his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or "PEPFAR," had already met its goal of helping to treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2008.
"PEPFAR is bringing hope and healing to people around the world. On our trips to Africa, Laura and I have witnessed firsthand the gratitude of the African people," said Bush.
The White House says that just 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving life-saving anti-retrovrial treatment when the program was born in 2003.
"I salute President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease," said president-elect Barack Obama.
"And my administration will continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world," Obama said in recorded remarks to a forum with mega-church Pastor Rick Warren to discuss the fight against AIDS.
PEPFAR provides funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis treatment in 15 focus countries among the world's poorest, mainly in Africa.
Bush has listed the program among his proudest achievements, along with the "liberation" of 50 million Iraqis and Afghans, and told Warren's forum he hoped to be remembered as "a guy who showed up to solve problems" like AIDS.
"When you have somebody say there's a pandemic, that you can help, and you do nothing about it, then you have, frankly, disgraced the office," said Bush, who hands the keys of the White House to Obama on January 20.
As of September 30, the US program supported antiretroviral treatment for over 2.1 million men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS around the world, including more than two million people in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the White House.
Nearly 9.7 million people affected by HIV/AIDS in PEPFAR countries, including nearly four million orphans and other children, had received "compassionate care" by that date, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
"Nearly 240,000 babies have been born HIV-free due to the support of the American people for programs to prevent mothers from passing the virus on to their children," Perino added.
In July 2008, Bush signed legislation tripling the program's funds to 48 billion dollars from 15 billion dollars. The new program drops a requirement for one-third of the anti-AIDS funds to be used to promote sexual abstinence and lifts a ban on HIV-positive foreigners entering the United States.
"HIV is still a major threat to public health throughout the world despite progress made over the years in some countries," the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned in a statement Friday.
About two thirds of the world's HIV-positive cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. At least one person in 10 lives with HIV in nations such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, the IFRC said in a June report.
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